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History

~500

B.C. artificial entrance tunnel into the cave built.

~1960

discovered by a local shepherd looking for a lost goat.

1963

explored by Iranian mountaineers.

1978

discovered by an inhabitant of Ali Sadr.

1994

new parts of the cave discovered but not surveyed.

DEC-2000

a German expedition, Dr. Georg Kaufmann, Michael Laumanns, and Thilo Müller surveyed most of the cave.

Description

Ali Sadr is a water cave, most of the trip is done by boat.
But the cave is not a typical river cave with a flowing river, the water is more
like a very long lake and crystal clear.
Of course the cave shows many formations, but the standing water also allowed
the growth of calcite crystals on the walls.
They are 5 to 10 cm in size and cover the walls under water and up to about 3 m
above todays water level.

Ali Sadr has 400,000 visitors per year (1994), which makes it one of the most visited cave of the world.
For a comparison: the famous
Postojnska Jama
had about 1,000,000 visitors per year in the eighties, the
Eisriesenwelt
has about 200,000 visitors per year.
Because of the political situation and the difficulties to visit the country,
the visitor must be from the Iran, not from abroad.
Ali Sadr Cave is located between huge cities like Hamadan, Teheran, Qom and Bakhtárán.
And as far as we know, it is the only show cave in the Iran.
This may explain the enormous number of visitors.

The 1994 new discovered parts of the cave are said to be enormous.
But all older publications of a length of 11km were just a rumour.
The number based on a very vague appraisal.
In December 2000 a German expedition started a completly new, state of the art,
survey.
This survey was completed by a German/British expedition in summer 2001 and the
result was by coincidence really 11kms.
This made Ali Sadr the longest (surveyed) cave of the country, at least until
the next cave was surveyed.
The main chamber is 100 to 50 m big and 40 m high, the second largest is not
much smaller.

For a very long time, the cave was a water reservoir for the people in nearby
village Ali Sadr.
The artificial entrance tunnel to the cave was built during the reign of
Dareios I. (521-485 B.C.), King of the Araemenides.
At least this is what an old inscription at the entrance tells.
This tunnel leads the water to the surface.

The cave is known to the people for a very long time.
However, most of this knowledge was lost, and so the cave was rediscovered in
1978, when the water from the spring diminished.
An inhabitant of Ali Sadr followed the tunnel in search for the water.
Another story tells, the cave was rediscovered already in 1960 by a local
shepherd looking for a lost goat.